BASEBALL

BASEBALL; Yanks Muzzle Jackson After Steroids Comments

By CHARLIE NOBLES

Published: March 12, 2004

TAMPA, Fla., March 11—
The former Yankees slugger Reggie Jackson went directly into Manager Joe Torre's office when he arrived here Thursday. After several minutes of conversation between Torre and the Yankees' public relations director, Rick Cerrone, Jackson emerged with a surprised look on his face.

''I didn't realize I was in trouble until I got here,'' said Jackson, a Yankees spring training guest instructor who took a strong stand for clamping down against steroid use in an article in Thursday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Cerrone said: ''He's a club official and there's a gag order,'' referring to Commissioner Bud Selig's mandate for team officials not to talk about the Balco investigation or the broader issue of performance-enhancing drugs. ''We just had to remind him.''

Jackson said after the meeting that the order did not bother him. He had a defiant air. ''I'm not worried,'' he said as he walked toward the coaches' dressing room. ''I have a nice home. I can go there.''

Two Yankees -- first baseman Jason Giambi and right fielder Gary Sheffield -- were among the players who testified before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or Balco. Federal authorities contend that the lab supplied steroids to athletes, including baseball players.

In his published comments, Jackson -- who hit 563 home runs in his career -- made several references to Barry Bonds, whose personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was indicted Feb. 12 on charges of illegally distributing anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

''Somebody definitely is guilty of taking steroids,'' Jackson said in The Journal-Constitution. ''You can't be breaking records hitting 200 home runs in three or four seasons. The greatest hitters in the history of the game didn't do that.''

Jackson also alluded to Bonds in comments about Hank Aaron, the career home run leader. ''Henry Aaron never hit 50 home runs in a season, so you're going to tell me that you're a greater hitter than Henry Aaron?'' Jackson said in the article. ''Bonds hit 73 and he would have hit 100 if they would have pitched to him. I mean, come on, now. There is no way you can outperform Aaron and Ruth and Mays at that level.''

Jackson said players used to compete on fairly even terms physically. ''It was the same for everybody,'' he said. ''Now, all of a sudden, you're hitting 50 home runs when you're 40.''

Bonds, who will be 40 in July, hit 45 home runs last season. He was 37 when he hit 73. With 658 home runs, he is two away from tying Mays for third place on the career list.

Jackson urged Selig to meet with interested Hall of Famers who want baseball to implement more stringent steroid testing.

''Why wouldn't you ask me or Aaron or somebody like that to give you some insight?'' Jackson told The Journal-Constitution. ''Bud is a nice guy, but he doesn't know what's happening here.''

Jackson had high-profile company in making his pointed reference to the limited drug-testing rules that the players union has permitted. On Wednesday, Senator John McCain warned Donald Fehr, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, that Congress would intercede unless the union agreed to strengthen and expand the sports' drug-testing policy.

INSIDE PITCH

JOE TORRE said BERNIE WILLIAMS, who is recovering from an appendectomy, might rejoin the team after its season-opening trip to Japan. . . . Right-hander JAVIER VAZQUEZ shut out the Detroit Tigers over four innings, allowing two hits, but the Yankees lost their fifth straight game, 3-2.

Photo: Reggie Jackson, right, said Commissioner Bud Selig should seek insight from Hall of Famers. (Photo by David Kadlubowski for The New York Times)